Cuba and Fake News

Or...How the Incompetent or Biased U. S. News Media Hurts Both Democracy AND Cuba!!
{Wednesday, March 8th, 2017}

         The U. S. Coast Guard is besieged daily trying to desperately stop, contain or confiscate a renewed tsunami of illegal drugs bound for America's shores AND FOR its never-ending multitude of drug users and traffickers, as depicted by the above photo. Currently -- all across the U. S. -- big cities, little towns and even bucolic rural areas are being swamped by heroin and opioid overdoses.  SO GUESS WHAT NATION,  according to an updated report this month from the U. S. government...IS AMERICA'S BEST ALLY IN ITS NEVER-ENDING WAR ON DRUG? Shhhhhh, it's, uh, poor little Cuba. Uhhh...you didn't know that?? You're not supposed to know that but if the U. S. government had issued an updated report critical of Cuba, you would have heard and read all about it in both the mainstream U. S. media and in the most ubiquitous and best-funded myriad of anti-Cuban/pro-Batistiano blogs!! The weirdly biased and intimidated U. S. news media -- considered so vital to the preservation of Democracy by the Founding Fathers -- as well as the lushly funded anti-Cuban blogs -- not only lie about Cuba but a biased or incompetent media probably constitutes the greatest threat to America's democracy, and is also...coincidentally...a huge threat to poor little Cuba!! 

           Yet, even in the U. S. and even regarding Cuba, there are exceptions to the rule in the mainstream U. S. media and in blogs...such as, well, this one, the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Engage Cuba, Along the Malecon, etc. Such an exception in the mainstream U S. media concerns a major article in The Denver Post on the eve of this week's start of the World Baseball Classic. Please permit me to explain.

      The 4th World Baseball Classic, which is played every four years, got underway this week. It involves sixteen nations -- including Cuba, the island nation that in decades past dominated international baseball competitions such as the Pan Am Games, the Olympics and was the team to beat when the WBC was hatched by the U. S. Major Leagues sixteen years ago. Since 1959, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, Revolutionary Cuba has survived CIA and Mafia-plotted assassination attempts, the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack, the economic embargo-blockade that originated in 1962 and exists to this day, multitudes of unchecked terrorists acts such as the bombing of the Cuban civilian airliner in Oct.-1976, etc. But Cuba's renown as a producer of baseball talent and for its dominating national teams existed until the year 1998.

   

    On March 23, 1998 the New York Yankees, America's richest and most iconic baseball team, signed the best pitcher in Cuba -- Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. He quickly became the Yankees' ace pitcher with a 12-4 record in 1998, a 17-9 record in 1999, etc. Cuba's other two best pitchers -- Orlando's half-brother Livan Hernandez and Jose Contreras -- also quickly defected and signed with U. S. Major League teams, also quickly becoming multi-millionaires and very successful Major League pitchers. So, the Yankees' signing of El Duque in 1998 ushered in an unending avalanche of defections by Cuba's baseball stars enticed by Major League teams, along with money-crazed human traffickers. Prior to 1998, much more quietly, Cubans like Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Luis Tiant, Tony Perez, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, etc., etc. had been Cuban superstars in the U. S.

   But "El Duque's" 1998 signing by the Yankees began the wholesale decimation of Cuba's baseball stars overwhelmed with lures to defect to the U. S. -- lures such as totally guaranteed upfront contracts, even to Cuban teenagers, that reached $80 million or more, the type of guaranteed money that, of course, to this day, captures the attention of unsavory human traffickers. El Duque, born in Cuba in 1965, was already past his prime in 1998 when the NY Yankees made him an instant multi-millionaire, but El Duque was still being paid $7 million a year by the NY Mets in 2008. Today the Mets' best Cuban player, Yoenis Cespedes, has a guaranteed $30 million-a-year deal, dwarfing El Duque's many $millions$.   

        In the World Baseball Classic starting this week, Cuba's best veteran star who, for some reason, hasn't yet defected to the U. S. is Alfredo Despaigne, this slugger. Alfredo belted three home runs in the last WBC back in 2013. This year his former superstar teammates in Cuba are now American Major Leaguers.
           Cuba's WBC opener was played Tuesday morning EST and broadcast before daylight on the MLB network from a wild, sold-out Tokyo Dome. Cuba lost 11-6 to the powerful Japanese team but Alfredo Despaigne went 2-for-4 with a home run for Cuba. Alfredo is a fan favorite in Japan because he plays there in its top professional league but, eschewing U. S. MLB offers, he returns to play as a rich man in Cuba.

        Another star for Cuba in the opening 11-6 loss at Japan Tuesday, March 7th was 19-year-old budding superstar Yoelqui Cespedes, the half-brother of New York Mets' superstar Yoenis Cespedes. Yoelqui is #16 above shown scoring a run against Japan. He went 3-for-4 with a double and made scouts drool.

      Early this Wednesday morning -- March 8th, 2017 -- in a game that finished at about 1:30 A. M. Cuban time Team Cuba easily beat China 6-0 in its second game in the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo, Japan.

#47, Yurisbel Gracial, led Cuba's offense vs. China.

Cuba out-hit China 14-to-1.

      In the win against China this morning Yoelqui Cespedes opened the scoring in the 5th inning with an RBI single after he had 3 hits in the tough 11-6 opening loss to host Japan. A speedy right-fielder, Yoelqui is just 19-years-old and the half-brother of the New York Mets' superstar Yoenis Cespedes. There are a lot of Major League scouts...and probably some human traffickers...watching Yoelqui very closely in Japan where Cuba's third game will be Friday morning. Baseball scouts from America and also from Japan salivate over Cuba's baseball talent and human traffickers love America's Batistiano-inspired Cuban laws. 

    

     Born in Newport Beach, California in 1991 and a star player at El Toro High School, Nolan Arenado is now a Super superstar at age 25 in the U. S. Major Leagues for the Colorado Rockies. How super? He already has four Gold Gloves as the best defensive third baseman in the National League. In 2015 he hit 42 home runs and had 130 runs-batted-in. In 2016 he hit 41 homers and had 133 RBI. Arenado has Cuban ancestry but he is among a vast array of Major League WBC superstars who will be playing elsewhere. 

Nolan Arenado on offense.

Nolan Arenado on defense.

      Back in November of 2016 this photo shows Nolan Arenado playing stick baseball on a street in Cuba with avid everyday Cubans. Nolan was, in fact, in Cuba the night Fidel Castro died at age 90 on Nov. 25th, 2016. Nolan's father Fernando, before defecting to the U. S., had served time in a Cuban prison as an anti-Castro dissident. {His mother is Puerto Rican}. Nolan, now the 25-year-old Major League superstar, longed to visit Cuba, a dream he finally fulfilled three months ago. A long and brilliant article in the The Denver Post on March 5th, 2017 written by Patrick Saunders told the emotional story of Nolan's visit to Cuba. Nolan is being paid $11,750,000.00 this year by the Colorado Rockies and he makes million more in endorsements. Next year Nolan's salary will be $17,500,000.00 and by 2020 when he is 28-years-old he becomes a free agent when all 30 Major League teams can bid for him and, thus, his salaries will likely exceed $30 million a year. That money made Nolan cry on his visit to Cuba where he realizes the average everyday salary on the island is about $30 a month. It's a vast disparity that touched Nolan's heart.

      On his visit to Cuba, Nolan Arenado took along 24 members of his family, 12 of whom are shown above on a Cuban beach. The three photos of Nolan and his family in Cuba are courtesy of the Arenado Family.

     This jolly photo shows members of the Arenado Family swimming in Cuba. They toured the island from Havana in the northwest to the city of Guantanamo in the southeast where the pre-revolutionary Arenado Family once ran a store, which remains as a dilapidated replica of the Batista-to-Castro transition. The journeys in a Chinese-made modern tour bus were all made during the daylight hours because the urban roads in Cuba were considered too rough and dangerous for nighttime travel although, otherwise, Cuba is one of the world's safest nations and is almost devoid of crime, gangs and illegal drugs, as the U. S. report stipulated. Nolan Arenado euphorically told the Denver Post how "wonderful" the Cuban people are. Nolan handed out a plethora of brand-new sports equipment. He recalled, amid unabashed tears back in Denver, how he handed a new soccer ball to a Cuban boy who "burst out just crying over his new possession."  

       A multi-millionaire SUPER superstar with the Colorado Rockies, the 25-year-old Nolan Arenado will be playing for the USA in the World Baseball Classic that started this week. If Nolan and the USA play the depleted Cuban team in the WBC, Nolan and the USA win will. But, more importantly, I wonder what Nolan will be thinking when and if he plays against the Cubans? He told The Denver Post he will be returning to Cuba to hand out more sports equipment to Cuban youngsters. You see, Nolan is both a compassionate young man and a very rich one. Moreover, he wants to make more Cubans "burst out crying." GOOD FOR HIM!! America needs men like Nolan Arenado in the United States Congress and...in the White House.

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Miami's LEGAL Immigrants

TOO MANY for the HARDLINERS??

       The above photo is courtesy of Joe Raedle/Getty Images. It fronted and illustrated a major USA Today article this first week in March of 2017. The article was written by Alan Gomez -- the counter-revolutionary Cuban-American based in Miami who is the top anti-Cuban writer for USA Today. Saturday's Gomez article is entitled: "JUDGE BASHES MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DECISION TO HELP ICE AGENTS." The sub-headline is: "County Was First to Alter 'Sanctuary City' Policies Due to Trump's Threats." I truly believe Americans should read this March 4-2017 article BECAUSE such contentious issues as America's 300 Sanctuary Cities might --remember I said MIGHT -- EITHER DESTROY THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY OR FUEL A REAL REVOLUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. If that sounds like hyperbolic bluster, really it's not!! So, read on.

      In his March 4-2017 article Alan Gomez made this salient point: "Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez threw the county into the federal immigration debate when he became the first in the nation to give in to Trump's threats against 'Sanctuary Cities.'" Gomez pointed out that there are over 300 sanctuary cities -- from San Francisco and LA to NY City -- who protect illegal aliens from being deported or jailed by the U. S. government. Gomez added, "Trump signed an Executive Order Jan. 25 to withhold federal grants from jurisdictions that don't comply with federal immigration authorities." And Gomez wrote that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez "doesn't want Miami-Dade to lose out on $335 million it receives in federal funding." 

       The Mayor of Miami-Dade County since 2011 is Carlos Gimenez. He was born in Havana, Cuba 63 years ago. One problem confronting President Trump and America...one that might begin to bubble over...is the fact that, with extremely rare exceptions, only Cuban hardliners can get elected to powerful positions in Miami-Dade, which has essentially been a mammoth and lucrative sanctuary city for Cubans since the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 overturned the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Also, in Miami-Dade it appears that only counter-revolutionary journalists are allowed to report on Cuban issues...at least since 1976 when top Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian got car-bombed when he criticized Cuban-American involvement in terror acts against innocent Cubans such as with the bombing of the civilian Cuban airliner Cubana Flight 455. Of course, Americans outside of Miami-Dade haven't really had input into such things so most Americans today are totally unfamiliar with Emilio Milian, Cubana Flight 445, etc. and not even interested enough or...as some cases may be...brave enough to Google such true historic tidbits.

      Even in Miami-Dade County, polls reveal that most Cuban-Americans support former President Barack Obama's brave and herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba; and most Cuban-Americans supported Obama's trip to Cuba and his promise that "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." But in reality, the hardliners in Miami and in the U. S. Congress still dictate all of America's Cuban policy that the courageous Obama Executive Orders didn't change, or at least...momentarily altered. 

Thus, with Cuban hardliners in charge and at the forefront, any Cuban-American -- INCLUDING MAYOR GIMENEZ IN MIAMI -- who deviates from pro-Cuban exile or counter-revolutionary actions are threatened politically or otherwise, as you can see with the anti-Gimenez protests depicted above regarding Miami as a Sanctuary City. Extremely discriminatory U. S. laws that favor Cubans are, not surprisingly, popular.

       It seems that only counter-revolutionary Cuban-American hardliners, like Senator Marco Rubio, can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami although most Cuban-Americans even in Miami oppose such assaults on the island nation. Rubio and a continuous line of Bush-aligned Cuban-Americans have easily forged in the U. S. Congress an incredible plethora of laws designed to empower and enrich elitist Cuban-Americans while also attacking Cuba with a vast array of counter-revolutionary "legal laws" that currently command a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. BUT GUESS WHAT? As Cuban-American U. S. Senator Rubio and Cuban-American Miami-Dade Mayor Gimenez are discovering, even the counter-revolutionaries are beginning to find fault with incredibly discriminatory U. S. laws that severely favor Cuban-Americans and severely punish 11 million totally innocent Cubans on the island -- laws such as the embargo in place since 1962 and the anti-democracy Wet Foot-Dry Foot law that prevailed for decades till President Obama ended it, at least temporarily, back on January 12, 2017, just before he left office.

     The two 6-year terms for Marco Rubio in the Senate from Miami have involved elections before and after his failed 2016 presidential bid. Rubio's political career is purely based on his Cuban ancestry in Miami and even that was misrepresented when he got to the Senate claiming his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba when, in fact, they had escaped the Batista tyranny long before Castro's revolution ousted Batista. Then Rubio's obligatory political career benefited from three factors: The richest and most powerful Miami counter-revolutionaries; the Tea Party, and tight alliances with the Bush dynasty. Yet, back in the Senate to keep alive his 2024 presidential aspirations, Rubio -- the furious counter-revolutionary -- wants to end one of the primary pro-Cuban exile and anti-Revolutionary Cuba laws. On January 7, 2016 the best and bravest of the South Florida newspapers -- the Orlando-based Sentinel -- used a video-taped Rubio rant to illustrate an article that said that Rubio was introducing in the Senate a bill "to address unbridled abuses of refugee aid to Cuban migrants." It seems Rubio loves laws such as Wet Foot-Dry Foot that encourages Cubans to defect to Miami where, the moment they touch soil without any vetting they are home-free with instant financial, residence and citizenship privileges totally unavailable to all non-Cubans. Even Fidel Castro took advantage of such laws by famously, such as with the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, sending unwanted Cubans, including criminals, to their quick acceptance in Florida. But Rubio is outraged that Cubans using those Cuban-only laws come to the U. S., get on Social Security and other entitlement payrolls, then go back to Cuba and STILL GET THE MONEY. Over the decades as Americans have allowed a handful of counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans to dictate America's Cuban policy, some of those laws easily mandated and maintained in the U. S. Congress now even outrage the most vicious counter-revolutionaries -- such as U. S. Senator Marco Rubio and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

      A mightily targeted and harassed President Donald Trump -- the anti-Cuba successor to the Cuba-friendly President Obama -- hasn't yet lived up to his promise -- made sanctimoniously in Miami -- to erase Obama's positive Cuban overtures. But Trump's first forty-plus days in the White House and at his Mar-a-Largo estate in South Florida have been mired by more urgent topics -- such as his alleged ties to Russia. Beyond Russia, Trump's primary problem in the coming days -- also likely diverting him from Cuban issues -- is the sheer fact that the mainstream media will likely, sometime between now and 2020, succeed in their all-out effort to destroy the Trump presidency. Led by the unabashed efforts of CNN, MSNBC-NBC, Washington Post and NY Times, the U. S. media -- in their primary roles as propaganda machines instead of news operations -- will likely prove powerful enough to dethrone Trump, which in turn will impact little Cuba as well as the rest of the Big world. For over a year those extremely biased media outlets tried 24-hours-a-day to destroy Trump the candidate and now they have wised up and re-doubled their efforts to destroy his presidency, which will likely happen. As for me, I am also anti-Trump but I am fiercely pro-U.S. and pro-democracy and thus I would like to see both Miami and the U.S. media a bit more democratic.

 And by the way:

        I also love the incomparable beauty, multiple skills and amazing mannerisms of little birds. And I love photos taken by the world's very best wildlife photographers. The photo above shows an Eastern Bluebird in flight taking a look back at Melissa Groo, whom I consider the world's best wildlife photographer.

 This is Melissa Groo at work.

 Her Eastern Bluebird deserves a 2nd look.

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Cuba's Baseball Conundrum

On Display in the WBC!
{Updated: Saturday, March 4th, 2017}

     The 2017 World Baseball Classic, which is held every four years, begins Monday, March 6th. The opening game pits Israel against Korea in Seoul, South Korea. The next day Cuba plays two-time champ Japan in the Tokyo Dome. The other 12 participating nations are the United States, Taiwan, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Netherlands, China, Canada, Colombia, Italy, Australia, and Mexico. The 16 teams are divided into four, 4-team divisions and the division winners head to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for the semi-final and championship games. In 2013 in the previous title game, the Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico. Those two teams are again among the top favorites because they are loaded with superstars from the U. S. Major Leagues. All 30 of the U. S. Major League teams have state-of-the-art, year-round baseball complexes in the Dominican Republic where just about every male child longs for a future multi-million-dollar baseball contract, which are doled out like candy by the 30 MLB teams. Puerto Rico, a U. S. Territory in the Caribbean, also has preferential treatment and its WBC team this year is so stocked with Major League stars that it has not just one but two young superstar shortstops -- Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians and Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros. In past years, to win international tournaments -- such as the Pan-Am Games, the Olympics, and the WBC -- nations knew they had to beat powerful Cuban teams, but not anymore although the island of Cuba still produces the best per capita baseball talent and also features the most loyal and fervent fans.

       But in baseball as in many other arenas Cuba is royally screwed by an American Cuban policy that has been dictated since 1959 by the transplanted remnants who fled to the U. S. after the Cuban Revolution ousted the vile, U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Thus, while super teams like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico can use its stars from the U. S. Major Leagues, Cuba cannot. And the ultra-rich 30 Major League teams have utilized a baseball pipeline from Cuba...largely greased by human traffickers...to siphon off Cuba's vast array of baseball talent, including teenagers who can command guaranteed contracts worth $80 million or so dollars, such as what Boston was willing to pay for switch-hitter Yoan Moncada, who is now 21-years-old and rated a super prospect with the Chicago White Sox. Of course, as is often the case, unsavory agents and menacing human traffickers take full advantage of U. S. laws related to Cuba to also become instant millionaires from baseball contracts and other endeavors. For example, the three Cuban Major League stars depicted above in the "Pipeline" graphic are, left-to-right, Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox. They are all millionaires many times over; Cespedes' latest contract with the Mets averages out at a guaranteed $30 million A YEAR for years to come. But all three encountered dangerous human traffickers on their way to the Majors. Puig was imprisoned and direly threatened in Mexico till his traffickers got their share of his money. U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba are bonanzas for criminals.

This is Jose Abreu when he was a superstar for Cuba.

        This is Jose Abreu as the superstar multi-millionaire first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. But on his journey from Cuba to Chicago, Jose also had a harrowing experience with human traffickers as he was forced to recount this week in a federal courtroom in Miami, testimony that made headlines in USA Today this week -- March 2nd, 2017. Jose testified under oath that he "ate a chunk of a false passport while flying to the USA to cover up his illegal travel as a part of a Cuban ballplayer smuggling operation," to quote Thursday's USA Today. But Cuban players, again because of the nuances associated with longstanding Batistiano-type U. S. laws related only to Cuba, can amass far more upfront money than other players because Cubans like Abreu could sign with the highest bidder from the 30 Major League teams while other players, including Americans, only sign with the team that drafts them, cutting out competitive bidding from the other 29 teams. So such Cuban-only U. S. laws also provide extra millions to human traffickers, which is something Major League baseball and even some federal U. S. courts are trying real hard to correct.

      Meanwhile, America's Batistiano-type laws related to Cuba have depleted the island's baseball talent to such an extent that in international competitions, such as the WBC, Cuba is relegated to also-ran status instead of being the favorite. Yet, Cuba still tries to compete and it still has one of baseball's best managers, Victor Mesa. But, with U. S. teams and traffickers snatching up even Cuba's best teenage baseball players, the only superstar prospects Cuba will have in the upcoming WBC event is 21-year-old center-fielder Victor Mesa Jr. and 19-year-old outfielder Yoelkis Cespedes, the half-brother of New York Mets' superstar Yoenis Cespedes. So -- unlike the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican teams that are loaded with Major League stars -- Cuba will not have any of its vast array of Major League players playing for Cuba in the WBC...and, for sure, the Major League scouts and human traffickers at this year's WBC will be salivating to sign Cuban youngsters like Victor Mesa Jr. and Yoelkis Cespedes to huge contracts.

      This is outfielder Rusney Castillo who began playing baseball in his native Cuba when he was a teenager. At age 26 three years ago Rusney signed a $72.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.

      For the past three years, Rusney Castillo has been a total flop with the Boston Red Sox and their minor league affiliates. That's the bad news. The good news is that every penny of the $72.5 million is guaranteed whether or not Rusney...who turns 30-years-old in July...ever gets another base hit or catches another fly ball, and the rich Boston Red Sox don't give a hoot about wasting 72.5 million dollars on a nice Cuban!! 

      Cuba's best veteran in the upcoming WBC is Frederich Cepeda, this 36-year-old outfielder. In past international games, Frederich has been every bit as good as many of his former Cuban teammates who are now superstars in the U. S. Major Leagues but...because Cuban counter-revolutionaries dictate U. S. Cuban laws...those ex-teammates cannot play with him for Cuba. On the other hand, U. S. citizens with foreign ethnicities can play for the U. S. OR for their ancestral countries...so young superstar shortstops Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, both of whom had such options, elected to play for Puerto Rico in the WBC instead of the United States. Frederich Cepeda could now be a multi-millionaire playing in the United States Major Leagues but for some reason he has chosen to remain loyal to Cuba.

       In addition to Cepeda, Cuba in the WBC will have 30-year-old Alfredo Despaigne who, for over a decade, has been a star in Cuba's pro league and on all of Cuba's international teams. Alfredo has made big money playing pro baseball in Japan but he returns to play in Cuba's professional league and for Cuba's national teams, so far declining overtures from traffickers, agents and scouts to play in the U. S.

      The manager of the U. S. team in the WBC will be Jim Leyland, who in 1997 managed the Miami Marlins to a surprise World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians. Although the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican teams are again loaded with Major League talent, I predict Leyland's U. S. team will win this year's WBC championship. He has four of the best Major League outfielders in Adam Jones, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich; and he has arguably the best Major League shortstop in Brandon Crawford; and he has arguably the Major League's two best catchers in Buster Posey and Jonathan Lucroy; and he has two All-Star second basemen in Ian Kinsler and Daniel Murphy; and he has two superstar first basemen in Paul Goldschmidt and Eric Hosmer; and he has three superstar third basemen in Nolan Arenado, Matt Carpenter and Alex Bregman. For starting pitchers Leyland can call on Major League stars like Michael Fulmer, Sonny Gray, Danny Duffy, and Chris Archer. And in the bullpen the U. S. will have superstars like lefty Andrew Miller. If Leyland can't win the 2017 World Baseball Classic in Los Angeles with that mighty roster, his status as a Hall of Fame manager should be called into question.

       But Cuba's legendary Hall of Fame-caliber manager Victor Mesa -- on a level playing field -- could battle it out toe-to-toe with the USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the other WBC teams this month. But in international baseball competition, as in a plethora of other forums, Cuba is denied a level playing field, a fact that the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations confirms. But even such worldwide unanimity cannot compete against a dictatorial handful of Batistiano disciples who are backed by the world's economic and military superpower, the United States of America, and by pusillanimous generations of Americans since the 1950s that routinely genuflect to the Batistianos. Victor Mesa and millions of totally innocent Cubans on the island deserve to be able to compete on level playing fields and Victor Mesa's upcoming defeat in the World Baseball Classic will be a shameful and salient reflection of that fact.

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Cuban Images

Past and Present!

         The photo above illustrated a long article this week by the online power Salon that is a bit unique, meaning it was written by a reporter who actually visited Cuba and then presented an unbiased report on the often maligned island. The article is entitled "Hustlers Are Going to Hustle: From East Baltimore to Cuba..." The young Cuban entrepreneur above hustled the writer as he tried to get a customer for his taxi service provided by his 1950s-era Oldsmobile. The Salon article is unique because its writer toured Cuba and fairly reported on day-to-day life on the island in a transition period that follows the Nov.-2016 death of 90-year-old revolutionary icon Fidel Castro and the Jan.-2017 replacement of the Cuba-friendly Obama presidency by the Republican-unfriendly Trump administration. Unlike the Salon article, the mainstream U. S. media is too intimidated or too politically correct to report fairly about Cuba and most...not all, but most...of the Internet blogs -- such as Breitbart, National Review, Capital Hill Cubans, etc. -- are fiercely and blatantly unfair in dispensing fake but lushly funded anti-Cuban diatribes to their right-wing choirs.

       In less than a year -- by early February of 2018 -- for the first time since 1959 -- Cuba will have as its leader someone not named Castro. The 56-year-old, non-revolutionary, mild-mannered, motorcycle-riding, Beatles-loving, education-advocate Miguel Diaz-Canel will be the next President of Cuba, succeeding Raul Castro. Raul will be 86-years-old on June 3rd and in 2016 both of his brothers -- the 91-year-old Ramon and the 90-year-old Fidel died. And Raul is very tired. While he has relished being in charge of the Cuban military since 1959, he did not relish assuming the mantle of President but did so shortly after Fidel's near-fatal intestinal illness that first befell him in July of 2006. Raul, even in his prime as Cuba's military leader and later even as President, insisted on being home for dinner with his family at 6:00 PM each evening.

    In 1959 Vilma Espin and Raul Castro were married.

        Beginning in 1959, the Big Four in Revolutionary Cuba -- left to right -- were Vilma Espin, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Celia Sanchez. The Castro brothers were the upfront leaders and in charge of defense but the two revolutionary women were unchallenged concerning all other domestic items, with the overall power structure aligned in this order: Celia, Fidel, Vilma, and Raul...an order championed by Fidel. If that ranking does not compute with your understanding of Cuban history, it's probably because the Cuban narrative since 1959 has been dictated in the U. S. by two generations of transplanted Batista-Mafia figures. {But the ranking computes with the major observers of the Batista-to-Castro transition, including still-living and highly respected Cuban journalists-authors such as Marta Rojas and Roberto Salas}. 

      Since 1952 Cuba has been fueled -- for better or worse and come hell or high water -- by the island's fierce female opposition to and remembrance of the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, a fact the Western world ignores to facilitate its vilification of Revolutionary Cuba. Meanwhile, even as the Batistianos and Mafiosi regrouped in South Florida in January-1959, Vilma...as shown above...and Celia were solidifying revolutionary rule on the island with powerful institutions such as the still-viable-in 2017 Federation of Cuban Women, block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, etc.

       The "Guerrillera" {female} dominance of both the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba resulted in Vilma Espin having more decision-making power than guerrilla partner and future husband Raul Castro and Celia Sanchez having more decision-making power than her guerrilla partner and eternal soulmate Fidel Castro. Unbiased historians and insiders with such intimate details of the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba -- from Carlos Franqui to Pedro Alvarez Tabio to the still-living Roberto Salas and Marta Rojas -- were/are abundantly aware of this fact. For example, in his book the respected Roberto Salas wrote: "Celia Sanchez made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones. When she died of cancer in 1959, we all knew no one could ever replace her." In the montage above, the photo in the upper-right shows the influential guerrilla fighters Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin during a break in the Revolutionary War. After the war, Vilma's power rivaled that of Celia's and, except for defense factors, exceeded that of Fidel and Raul.

       And if you understand the unique power that revolutionary icons Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin had both during and after the victorious Cuban Revolutionary War, you need to update your knowledge of Cuba by understanding the above photo of Jennifer Bello Martinez. She is shown wearing her "I am Fidel" T-shirt while making a fiery speech in defense of Revolutionary Cuba. Jennifer, cast in the mold of Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin, is President of the Federation of University Students that, for over nine decades, has been one of the fiercest fighters for Cuban independence. Jennifer's influence on the island extends beyond the FEU, which means she is more powerful on the island than the collective array of dissidents that Jennifer and her followers believe are supported and funded by "foreign elements that we Cubans -- like Jose Echeverria, Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo -- must wage do-or-die battles against." {Echeverria was one of the many FEU leaders murdered by Batista while Marti and Maceo died on Cuban soil fighting Spanish imperialism}. While Revolutionary Cuba needed Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espn to overcome Batista in the 1950s, it needs Celia-Vilma disciples like Jennifer Bello Martinez if it is to continue its revolutionary rule.

       This montage from left-to-right shows Vilma Espin the guerrilla fighter, Vilma Espin at the peak of her power in Revolutionary Cuba, and Vilma Espin in the twilight of her remarkable life. Born in 1930 like her husband Raul, Vilma died of cancer in 2007. She was the mother of Raul's four children -- Mariela, Alejandro, Deborah and Nilsa. The heterosexual Mariela, as an internationally known gay rights advocate, is the best-known of Vilma and Raul's four children while Nilsa is the least known and both Deborah and Alejandro are the most politically powerful, or at least influential, and also more powerful and influential than Fidel's 8 sons on the island {or Fidel's two daughters, both of whom defected to South Florida}.

       The book shown above -- "THE LONGEST ROMANCE: The Mainstream Media and Fidel Castro" -- may indeed have correctly depicted the long romance between Fidel and the liberal media but with the transplanted Batistianos dictating the Cuban and Fidel narrative in the United States, Americans need to do a lot of research and Googling to ascertain the truth. For example, the photo used on the cover of the Humberto Fontova book depicted above can easily be researched to ascertain its origin on U. S. soil.

       This is the photo that Fontana put on the cover of his book. Your Googling research of this photo would take you to a YouTube video in which Fidel Castro stood before this bank of microphones and...in English...talked about his desires for friendly democratic relations with the United States in the early days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Those comments came at a time when Fidel, as a revolutionary hero, was wildly popular in Cuba, the United States and the world...popularity that was proven during his 12-day friendship visit to the United States in April of 1959, a mere three months after ousting the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. But even by then, right-wingers in the Eisenhower White House had continued their alliance with the Batista-Mafia revenge-seekers who had regrouped in South Florida. 

       Cuba in 2017 is faced with analyzing and reacting to the transition in the United States from the Cuba-friendly Democratic presidency of Barack Obama to the unfriendly Republican presidency of Donald Trump.

     During his recently concluded two-term presidency, Barack Obama displayed far more guts and intelligence than all the previous American Presidents dating back to the Spanish-American War in 1898 and especially since the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959. Confronted with a Batistiano-directed United States Congress, President Obama adroitly used a massive string of Executive Powers in a fervent attempt to normalize relations with Cuba, with his final such power stroke resulting in the end of the extremely discriminatory Wet Foot-Dry Foot law that massively encouraged and richly favored only Cuban immigrants.

          President Trump has yet to live up to his promises -- as stated above in Miami -- to use his own Executive Powers to erase President Obama's overtures toward Cuba. In this brand-new month of March-2017, it is assumed Trump still plans to keep those Miami promises but more pressing problems -- such as with the media, health care and Russia -- have pushed his Cuban plans aside -- at least momentarily.

      Organizations in the United States -- such as the James Williams-directed Engage Cuba Coalition -- are fighting tooth-and-nail, with some success, to continue Mr. Obama's friendly advances toward Cuba.

      For example, the image above is taken from an impressive Engage Cuba-produced video that gives voice to young Cuban entrepreneurs on the island who have benefited from the brave opening President Obama and a far-more-open Cuba is currently affording them. The video, readily available on YouTube if you care to see and hear what young Cubans think, is in both English and Spanish with the translated words crawled across the video in English when Spanish is spoken or in Spanish when English is spoken. Many decisions that directly concern Cubans in Cuba are routinely made in Miami and in Congress without consulting them, but they indeed do have opinions that Americans should respect. The young Cuban female entrepreneur above, and many others like her, are shown on the video literally begging the United States to follow "the Obama initiatives" and allow them to continue Obama's goal, which is to allow Cubans on the island to make decent entrepreneurial livings in defiance of Congressional and Miami hardliners.

       This is a CIA map of Cuba that was used by Voice of America during the Obama presidency when U. S. government organizations actually promoted Obama programs aimed at normalizing relations with Cuba.

      In 2017 -- the first year of the post-Obama Trump presidency -- there are many international efforts fighting the U. S. economic embargo/blockade of Cuba that has existed since 1962 and which the United Nations, by a vote of 191-to-0, considers the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a weak nation. The fact that many Americans don't seem to care how much that harms the worldwide image of both America and democracy continues to be a negative factor in the equation.

       As long as the U. S. embargo-blockade against Cuba remains in place, as long as the U. S. is unwilling to discuss the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba, and as long as a few Cuban-American hardliners can continue to dictate Cuban policy in the U. S. Congress and in Republican White Houses, there will be pro-Cuban and pro-Fidel demonstrations and promotions such as the one depicted above. This impressive poster promoted the massive pro-Cuban session in Vancouver that took place on February 17, 2017.

     The poster above heralds a two-day session sponsored by a normalization committee -- UCNC -- at the Fordham University School of Law and will take place on March 25th and 26th, 2017. It marks the start of a "National Conference to fight for the full normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba." 

      In less than a year, by February of 2018, Miguel Diaz-Canel at age 57 will take over as the next President of Cuba -- a non-Castro and a non-revolutionary. The photo is courtesy of Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images. In the intervening months, no matter what America's President Donald Trump does or does not do regarding his predecessor's {Obama's} peaceful overtures to Cuba, it is believed that Diaz-Canel will strongly look eastward in the direction of China and Vietnam as opposed to taking a westward glance toward the nearby United States. That's because Diaz-Canel does not believe that either Trump or Congress will "adequately address" -- Diaz-Canel's words -- two lines in the sand he has drawn: {1} The end of the embargo; and {2} "sincere discussions" with Cuba related to the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba "without conditions." Thus, to counter the anticipated "continuation of American bellicosity towards Cuba," it is expected that Diaz-Canel's leadership of Cuba will, even more than the Castro leadership since 1959, deemphasize Cuba's relations with the U. S. as much as possible and instead focus on accentuating as much as possible Cuba's relations with friendly powers, especially China and Russia.  

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